视频文字:£2million laboratory gift will help tackle Alzheimer's A state-of-the-art pharmacy laboratory aimed at discovering new drugs for diseases including Alzheimer's will officially open today (Friday) at Queen's University thanks to a £2 million donation by former chief executive of Warner Chilcott Dr John King.
The John A. King Medicinal Chemistry Research Laboratories at the School of Pharmacy, on the University’s health sciences campus, have been funded by Dr King, who began his career in medicinal chemistry research as a lecturer at Queen’s in the 1970s after graduating with first class honours and PhD degrees in pharmacy from the University.
Head of the School of Pharmacy at Queen's Professor David Woolfson said the donation had also funded opportunities for young researchers to be trained to doctoral level.
He continued: “With this generous gift, the School is establishing an international team of leading researchers in the vital area of drug discovery.
“The new facility will make a key contribution to our research programmes in the fundamental aspects of drug target identification and drug discovery.
“It represents the latest phase in the growth of a dynamic School that is now one of the leading academic centres for pharmaceutical science research in the UK and Ireland.”
Dr King has enjoyed remarkable success in the pharmaceutical industry and in 2004 he led the sale of Warner Chilcott to private equity partners for £1.6 billion. He retired from his position as executive chairman in 2005 and is now non-executive director of the company.
Dr King said: “As a former student, former lecturer and honorary graduate of Queen’s, I have a long-standing relationship with the University, and I am delighted to give support to the development of medicinal chemistry within the School of Pharmacy.
“I am pleased to support cutting-edge research into important areas including drug discovery for age-related diseases. I hope these facilities will further enhance the reputation of Queen’s pharmacy as a world-class research institute.”
A multi-national team has been recruited to work in the new lab including Dr Andrea Guiotto, who joined the School of Pharmacy from Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry of the Italian National Research Council and Dr Michael Decker, who moved to the School from Harvard Medical School in the USA and Jena University, Germany.
Dr Decker said that the ultimate aim of their research was to find novel compounds to help in the treatment and diagnosis of dementias.
He added: "Andrea Guiotto and I will be focusing on the discovery of new drug treatments for age-related diseases, including those that impair memory, for example, devastating conditions such as Alzheimer's.
“We are following a number of exciting lead compounds derived from both synthetic and natural sources. Our aim is to establish a Centre of Excellence for medicinal chemistry research into neurodegenerative diseases in the School of Pharmacy at Queen's.”
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